7 inspiring women who are ruling the world

Have you ever read Cosmopolitan’s “Get That Life” series? They’ve talked to a bunch of women who have created their own unique paths to success in every profession — from engineers and authors to makeup artists and designers. The stories are so inspiring. I can spend hours reading through the archives and learning about these women, many of whom started out working lame jobs or without an idea for a career path and ended up starting their own business or climbing ladders to the tops of other companies.

I always love reading thoughts from Girlbosses (like the OG herself, Sophia Amoruso), and I thought you might, too. Here are five of my favorite success stories from Cosmo’s series:

The ladies behind theSkimm. I have been reading theSkimm every day for at least a year, and now I don’t start my day without it. Even though I still watch the news every morning while I’m getting ready and most nights before bed, there’s always something new or different on theSkimm than I get from television news. And while I try to keep up with news on Twitter, theSkimm makes it so much easier to have all the important stuff in one place. Not to mention, they also make it fun to read and easy to understand. Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin’s goal in creating theSkimm was to empower women with knowledge so that they could start a conversation with anyone, which I love. It’s certainly allowed me to stay in the know and bring up current events much more easily.

Rebecca Minkoff. Now a household name in fashion, Rebecca Minkoff has definitely earned her success. Her design business started out with financial help from her brother and a single purse. After high school, Minkoff started working for a designer in New York, where she learned the ins and outs of the industry. Her first jobs consisted of a lot of grunt work, but she had too much creativity and motivation to stay in one place for long. She made a few big connections that helped her build her network and eventually grow her brand into what it is today. At the beginning, she was doing all of her own grunt work — making calls and demanding money from her sales — but it all paid off.

The author of Luckiest Girl Alive. Can you imagine hitting the best-seller list and getting a movie deal with Reese Witherspoon — all with your first book? That’s just about every writer’s dream, right? It would certainly be mine if I had the discipline to sit down and write a full book! That’s what happened with Jessica Knoll. She paid her dues in the journalism industry and found success in magazines, eventually becoming senior editor at Cosmo. She started writing her novel in the mornings before work and on weekends. Halfway through the book she switched jobs and went to Self, where she worked until it was finished. Now she’s writing the screenplay for the movie version that Reese Witherspoon will produce. (P.S. I just finished Luckiest Girl Alive a couple weeks ago and highly recommend it!)

The creators of Stowaway Cosmetics. I love reading stories about people who are truly innovative, and that’s Julie Fredrickson and Chelsa Crowley, the creators of Stowaway Cosmetics. They realized how inconvenient it was that women are always toting around full-sized beauty products in their bags and found a solution to the problem. In doing so, they realized that manufacturing costs for full-sized products is the same for sample sizes, which is why most brands don’t offer them. But Julie and Chelsa wanted to fill this void, so they found a way to make it work. And so far, they have thousands of customers since launching the company in February.

The creator of Style Me Pretty. After taking a part-time job at a stationary business to make ends meet after college, Abby Larson found her love for…paper. It may seem like a strange start for the founder of a wedding blog, but weddings need invitations, right? And that’s sort of where it all began for Abby. After a wedding planner noticed the invitations she had designed for her friend’s bachelorette party, Abby created her own stationary business. Within a year her products were in more than 125 stores, many of which she had cold-called and pitched herself. After selling her business, she started Style Me Pretty, which is now one of the largest wedding blogs on the web, and features beautiful photos submitted from hundreds of weddings each week.

Who are you inspired by right now? Do you have a success store like these women, or are you still working toward yours? What motivates you to chase your dreams? I'd love to hear...

P.S. About strong women, like a #girlboss and where do you go for inspiration?

[Photos via Cosmo's "Get That Life" series]